Do pregnant women have to take part in fire drill?

[Guest SamM]

We are in a suite on the 2nd floor within a managed building. We have a pregnant lady in the office and we want her to be allowed to sit in the office and not evacuate down the stairs during a planned fire drill. The managers of the buidling have advised that she needs to evacuate the building when we have a fire drill. Is there any legislation or guidance I can refer to in this matter? Thank you

[green-foam]

Hello Sam, I will leave the rules / regulations to Harry / Tom .

I understand what you are asking but I suggest you look at it this way. Heaven forbid there should be a real fire, but will the pregnant lady know what to do? She may also need assistance exiting the building, in which case perhaps one or two people could be "assigned" to help her. I would say the managers are quite right, after all, practice does make perfect, which is why you have fire drills in the first place.

[Tom Sutton]

As green-foam says nobody is exempt and any temporarily disabled person even for a short period of time (I except she may disagree about the short period of time) should have a PEEP produced for them.

Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-emergency-evacuation-plan-or-fire-procedure/ for more information.